Some of us Christians have not understood or really had an experiential first-hand knowledge what that phrase in the Bible that Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians 5:17 truly means; the fact that you’re a “New Creation”!
1. Because of this lack of deep and experiencial knowledge, some Christians and Christian teachers focus more on their earthly identity, earthly origin or earthly physical hereditary or genetic foundation; more than their spiritual, Word-based identity or inner psychological, emotional and spiritual natures or identity foundation. But this is a wrong mindset and wrong thinking pattern. You’re born from above, born of the spirit; a brand new creation and an Abraham seeds/descendent (meaning that your spiritual, emotional and moral/psychological foundation has been supplanted for Christ’s)! You’ve got to accept this and make it more “real” to you than anything else that’s physical. Period!
2. Know that at the foundation of every spiritual, psychological, emotional or personality problems in our world today (what some call mental health traumas or demonic personality disruption issues) is a faulty “subconsciousness” or “mindset” foundation.
3. If you can “accept” the reality of your new “mindset”, your new “personality” foundation and “spiritual nature” in Christ (your spiritual identity and reality in the Word of God) and stick to it in spite of all the mental and emotional fires/voices raging in your inside, you will overcome every external defects or circumstances and rise to become all that God has created you to be. It may not happen overnight and may require great determination to challenge and change these inner patterns and mindset strongholds, but it can be done, when you simply and strongly accept your “superior identity” in Christ and live by it!
4. Truth is that the whole of Africa and its people, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are suffering from one scale of mental health/identity crisis issue or the other. The whole sub-Saharan Africa is underperforming and majority of its people suffering not because of lack of talents or resources, but because of wrong mindsets, belief systems or identity labels (personality crisis) that our forebears and also the West have over the years “systematically” imprinted inside most citizens and family psyches.
no5. Even African leaders are not free from this “identity crisis”; they’re probably even the most infected and affected if you judge by their self-sabotaging behaviours over their own country and patriotic socioeconomic heritage. Foreign medias like CNN, BBC and most of the foreign NGOs have also done a good jobs over the decades to label Africa and its people in a certain light, until those labels have become (subtly, psychologically & subconsciously) stuck and ingrained in our psyches. This has been the real spiritual warfare; the warfare for superior individual, national or geographical “meaning” and “authenticity”.
6. It’s because of this social/personality crisis that, our leaders, instead of focusing on and wielding our intangible economic and social powers (the vast inherent resources/potential we all have as a people), we sabotage ourselves by looking out there for so-called solutions. Leaders thus keep looking up to the West to solve a big part of our socioeconomic problems–instead of being inspired to boldly design and follow our own development template and seek partnership to bridge these huge gaps/problems once and for all.
7. Did you see how almost 54 of these African leaders/presidents (apart of South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa) packed themselves and went to Washington DC for the so-called US-African Summit? At best those Summits are more about how the US will sustain or improve it’s geopolitical stranglehold/influence on African countries and politics, than it is about helping the continent to truly grow.
8. Real development and socioeconomic transformation is when you focus 100% on your own greatest inward resources and potential and then develop your unique models that the outside world can find valuable. With these valuable development blueprints or models, you don’t need to go anywhere really; the global (investment) world will troop into your shores to own a part of or experience that “new world” you’ve created or are creating.
9. So I just want to use this post to motivate you as a Christian, perhaps all of us as citizens of Nigeria, to embrace and vigorously fight for your “spiritual identity”, much more than you give credence to your earthly origin or background. There’s no mental health, demonic/evil manipulation or external influence that can stop you from manifesting your God-given gifts and success if you know, believe and act based on your “new creation nature” and “identity” in Christ. If you focus on your “earthly identity”, you can lose; but if you know and focus on your “spiritual image/identity”, you’d never lose and will always win in life!
Shalom.